Yahoo Goes the Path of Old Search Skins

Sometimes when the internet bores me, I like to punch in the URLs of old search engines from back in the day (late 90s), just to see what's going on with 'em. By and large they're all dead -- mainly just skins for established search engines, kind of the way AOL search is a skin of Google (GOOG). Sometimes they try to retain the teensiest bit of value-add by using those URLs as a meta-search engine. So you can go to HotBot.com, and use it to either search via Yahoo or MSN or LyGo.com (?).

Anyway, I'm pretty sure that's the direction Yahoo (YHOO) is going now. Fred Wilson says the new deal with Google will allow the company to: "get lean, get out of businesses it shouldn’t be in. Focus on what it’s good at."

Well as long as Yahoo is "getting lean" why even maintain a search engine at all? Why is that a business it should be in? Shouldn't Yahoo Search just like AOL be another avatar of Google? Social networking? How about outsourcing it to Facebook? I'm not trying to be flip here, but I'm curious what it is that Yahoo is so good at?

Here's a thought experiment: If Yahoo didn't exist today, but then was completely invented from scratch tomorrow, would it be able to get any traction in this market? Would it by able to siphon users away from any other player, including AOL and MSN?

Personally, I don't think this deal is so bad for the internet, as some hyperventalists are making it out to be. So Google owns search advertising...  big. "Evil" monopolies foster the environment for folks to really gun after 'em.

But yeah, Yahoo... I'm pretty sure this deal is the first step towards guaranteed long-term irrelevance, just another old search skin.

Comments

[baka:]

I dropped Yahoo as my opening page when they added more clutter, threw in pop up ads and float over windows. I finally couldn't stand it. I switched to excite.com, that worked for a while then they did the same. The interface of each was still way over-cluttered but it was useable. Why is google the only major player in the search market that realizes a clean minimal interface is attractive?? It keeps me coming back.

2008 Jun 15 07:57 AM

[herohero:]

Altavista isn't bad for a clean interface but it's really too late for anybody to catch Google. Jerry Yang is an arrogant idiot for not taking the Microsoft deal.

2008 Jun 15 08:41 AM

[WAKEUP:]

Yahoo's management did what they wanted to do. That's what management does. If you didn't like the way it was heading, you had plenty of opportunity to sell your shares. If you didn't do that, if you waited for the Fairy Godmother of Stocks to drop an undeserved profit in your lap, tough. It's a rough world. Undeserved gifts are hard to find.

2008 Jun 15 12:34 PM

[jack dee:]

Of course GOOG will not rule search forever. Yes today they are top of search chain. But the barriers are low in fact users have just to type a few letters and use someone else.
It was not that long ago that people kept saying the new MSFT is msft. That looks short sighted now.

2008 Jun 15 01:51 PM

[sweetreveng...:]

I guess the best way to try and understand how Jerry Yang was thinking during the Microsoft offers is to understand the oriental mind. Its far more important to orientals to lose money rather than to lose face. Maybe jerry felt that by accepting the final offer from Microsoft, he would be lossing face with not only his own employees but with the rest of the bsuiness world as well, and to lose face, is not acceptable. Its not like the deal with Microsoft would have made him an instant billionaire, he already had achieved that goal on his own, so it wasn't the money that swayed his decision making, but something else. Maybe he felt that why should he sell out his company to a arch rival who would use his company to their best advantages to over take their arch rival Google, when it was Jerry Yang and his company that made Yahoo what it is today. Why should he let his enemy have all the benefits he had worked so hard to accomplish all these years of being with Yahoo?
Saving face is a very big issue with orientals! Think about it!

2008 Jun 15 03:04 PM

[sweetreveng...:]

I would think that Jerry Yang has given serious thoughts to the pro's and con's of the microsoft offer, and realizing just what the consequences would be if he turned down their offer, also considered what his prospects would be with google. He is a smart operator, regardless of what others may thing, you have to give credit where credit is due, even if you dislike the guy, he feels he is doing the best thing for his company and because of this, he now has to contend with two additional battle fronts: Shareholders lawsuits against Yahoo and the Carl Icahn's Raiders, this will tie up yahoo's financial resources for months to come, and this in itself will help to destry yahoo. While they are fighting off the lawsuits and Icahn's sharks, they won't be able to go after the types of profitable markets that would greatly increase their cash resources and these legal battles yahoo will be engaged in, will further weaken the entire structure of yahoo, even if they win, hands down on all accounts, the company will still be a lot weaker in overall strength.

2008 Jun 15 03:12 PM

[PacificGate...:]

YAHOO’S SHAREHOLDERS LOSE ON MORE THAN ONE FRONT

Great to see that cool heads have finally prevailed at Microsoft. Nevertheless, it was a seriously missed opportunity by Yahoo shareholders.

They should have been more vocal. Now it's too late. Their board did not serve them well.

2008 Jun 15 05:37 PM

[TA:]

Well said, it's only a matter of time before GOOG owns all YHOO's search and probably the rest of it too - sold piece by piece all so an arrogant Yang can keep his ego no matter what the cost.

2008 Jun 15 09:11 PM